Forcing the Clinton administration to focus more of its anti-drug efforts on interdicting illicit substances as they near U.S. borders will be a top priority of the new Republican Congress, Senate Republicans say. ''It is now clear that the Clinton administration drug policy is failing,'' incoming Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, wrote in a letter to Lee Brown, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Hatch, the next chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Friday released the letter to Brown and a second letter to President Clinton that he co-signed with Sen. Connie Mack, R-Coral Springs.

HAVANA -- Cuba's top anti-drug agent and European officials launched a course Monday on drug interdiction in the Caribbean, marking one of the first renewed programs since diplomatic relations between Cuba and the European Union were restored last month. John Dew, British ambassador to Cuba, said he is enthusiastic about the weeklong course as well as recent improvements in political relations with Cuba.

Five members of the Volusia County Sheriff's Office and a former chaplain for the agency testified before a federal grand jury in Orlando on Thursday.The grand jury was seated to hear testimony about Sheriff Bob Vogel's Interstate 95 drug interdiction team.It is reviewing possible criminal civil rights violations in connection with an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice. The investigation was initiated in July by the Justice Department.More Sheriff's Office members are expected to testify.

I really need to express my concerns about the movie Black Hawk Down. I commanded Charlie Company, 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment, which was the first Army aviation regiment to be operational in Somalia. We landed in Mogadishu on Dec. 23, 1992, about three weeks after the Marines had landed and seized the airport. The movie focuses on one event in the Somalia fiasco and leaves out the tremendous good that the U.S. forces accomplished in getting food out to the people who were starving before it became a hunt for Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid.

American F-15 jets speared through the night skies over Iraq, using their high-tech night-vision sensors to lock in on the targets below. Two years later, a twin-engine plane sails through the skies over Orlando, taking aim at its target - Dr. Phillips High School.This time, the aircraft's night-vision camera is scanning the roof of the school for structural damage. Technicians will write up a report for Orange County Schools.Aerial, infrared technology, showcased in the Persian Gulf War, is finding viable commercial markets, from building maintenance to environmental monitoring and drug interdiction.

The United States and Panama have reached a tentative agreement that would permit American troops to remain in Panama after the United States relinquishes control of the canal in 1999, officials of both governments said on Wednesday.The accord calls for establishment of a regional drug interdiction center at Howard Air Force Base, an American installation in Panama that the United States is scheduled to hand over in two years.Though Panamanian and other Latin American soldiers and police officers would also be deployed at the center, which would be under Panama's control, ``the agreement is essentially a fig leaf to enable the United States to stay on in Panama well into the 21st century,'' a Latin American diplomat said on Wednesday.

SENATE President Bob Crawford, D-Winter Haven, lowered his sights from $50 to $25 for a proposed fee on newly registered motor vehicles Wednesday but said it would still do the job of beefing up drug interdiction. The $25 version would add 50 Florida Highway Patrol troopers. They would be assigned to intercepting drug traffickers. Estimates are that there would be enough money to give all 1,587 troopers drug-interdiction training and a $300-a-month pay raise.

BOSTON WHALER INC. of Edgewater said it has won a new contract from the General Services Administration to provide fiberglass boats to the government. Worth an estimated $10 million over the next four years, the contract sustains Boston's 450-employee work force in Volusia County. The boats will be used for harbor patrol, drug interdiction, military services and other applications.

HAVANA -- Cuba's top anti-drug agent and European officials launched a course Monday on drug interdiction in the Caribbean, marking one of the first renewed programs since diplomatic relations between Cuba and the European Union were restored last month. John Dew, British ambassador to Cuba, said he is enthusiastic about the weeklong course as well as recent improvements in political relations with Cuba.

A judge dismissed drug charges against the captain and a crewman of a freighter that authorities say was scuttled off Mexico to avoid the seizure of 15 tons of cocaine. U.S. District Judge Rudi Brewster said Friday that both men were ''probably guilty as hell'' but that prosecuting them would violate the Constitution because federal agents had bungled the investigation. A Coast Guard drug-interdiction team that boarded the Honduran-registered Nordcapp failed to keep notes or videotape interviews with other crew members, violating a legal duty to preserve evidence, the judge ruled.

WASHINGTON -- CIA personnel on a U.S. surveillance plane did not attempt to read the registration number on the side of a civilian aircraft before it was shot down by the Peruvian air force on Friday because they were afraid it would flee out of Peru if they got too close, U.S. officials said Monday. An American missionary, Veronica "Roni" Bowers, and her 7-month-old daughter were killed when, according to American accounts, the Peruvian air force rushed the procedures established by both countries to distinguish drug-trafficking flights from other aircraft.

Barry McCaffrey, White House drug czar, has spent five years listening to politicians, law-enforcement officers, addicts, drug-abuse experts and foreign leaders while shaping the country's anti-drug policies. Today, some of those same people will hear McCaffrey address a national drug-treatment conference at Orlando's Radisson Hotel, next to Universal Studios. McCaffrey, who has announced he will step down in January, will be in town to tout alternatives to imprisonment for non-violent drug offenders.

The Clinton administration initially opposed it, and the Colombian government was taken by surprise. But a recent congressional initiative, spurred by direct appeals to conservative Republicans by the Colombian national police, has more than doubled drug-fighting money to Colombia and made the country a top recipient of United States foreign aid.The increase brings the assistance to $289 million for 1999, compared with $80 million in 1997 and $88.6 million...

The Clinton administration initially opposed it, and the Colombian government was taken by surprise. But a recent congressional initiative, spurred by direct appeals to conservative Republicans by the Colombian national police, has more than doubled drug-fighting money to Colombia and made the country a top recipient of United States foreign aid.The increase brings the assistance to $289 million for 1999, compared with $80 million in 1997 and $88.6 million...

Here is how members of Florida's congressional delegation voted last week on some major bills:Y: Yes N: No X: Not votingFISCAL 1999 BUDGETThe House passed by a vote of 216-204 a 1999 budget plan that would cut domestic spending and provide $101 billion in tax relief over five years for married couples. Supporters said the bill would provide needed tax relief. Opponents said that it violated last year's balanced budget agreement and that it would cut funding for education, the environment and health care.

WASHINGTON - The procedural logjam that threatened passage of a comprehensive tobacco bill appeared to break late Tuesday, raising the possibility of final Senate action as soon as this week.The legislation - which would boost cigarette prices $1.10 a pack, raise $516 billion over 25 years and supersede settlements made between some states and cigarette makers - still faces an uncertain future in the House, which has been waiting for Senate action before taking up the contentious issue.Late Tuesday, the Senate voted 52-46 along party lines for an amendment by Sen. Paul Coverdell, R-Ga.

I really need to express my concerns about the movie Black Hawk Down. I commanded Charlie Company, 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment, which was the first Army aviation regiment to be operational in Somalia. We landed in Mogadishu on Dec. 23, 1992, about three weeks after the Marines had landed and seized the airport. The movie focuses on one event in the Somalia fiasco and leaves out the tremendous good that the U.S. forces accomplished in getting food out to the people who were starving before it became a hunt for Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid.

A savvy drug-sniffing dog parlayed a routine traffic stop into the seizure of nearly $300,000 by Florida Highway Patrol troopers near Orlando Thursday.FHP Lt. Chuck Williams said a special drug interdiction team - two troopers and an FHP canine - stopped James E. Harris, 28, of Toledo, Ohio, at 8:15 a.m. for an improper lane change on Florida's Turnpike a half mile south of Interstate 4.Troopers became suspicious when Harris gave conflicting answers to their questions.''One thing led to another,'' Williams said, and troopers brought out their dog to check the car.The dog alerted troopers to the car's interior and trunk.

THE EDITORIAL that appeared in The Orlando Sentinel on April 7 - ``Nobody wins'' was right on target. The editorial dealt with the trial of Major Aaron Campbell of Dade County, who was stopped by Orange County deputies on Florida's Turnpike last year.I would like to take this one step further, which I think is the paramount issue in this case. As a retired law-enforcement officer, I know that the primary reason for any deputy to be assigned to the interstate system in this state is the seizure of drug money.

The United States and Panama have reached a tentative agreement that would permit American troops to remain in Panama after the United States relinquishes control of the canal in 1999, officials of both governments said on Wednesday.The accord calls for establishment of a regional drug interdiction center at Howard Air Force Base, an American installation in Panama that the United States is scheduled to hand over in two years.Though Panamanian and other Latin American soldiers and police officers would also be deployed at the center, which would be under Panama's control, ``the agreement is essentially a fig leaf to enable the United States to stay on in Panama well into the 21st century,'' a Latin American diplomat said on Wednesday.